Buddies for Baby

Around our house, we have lots of "buddies". Buddies are stuffed animals that are treated like children (carried in a sling, fed, get the occasional time out, etc.), used as fun projectiles, and have to be in the appropriate bed at bedtime (although, my kids have started a buddy exchange program at bedtime with one or two of their precious chosen). Buddies are very important since my daughter has never liked dolls....I have no idea why she doesn't like dolls; at one point in her babyhood she was even afraid of them. Buddies take on all roles that dollies would normally take in a little girl's life.

When our son was born almost 3 years ago, my then 2-year-old daughter and I picked out a special new buddy for him. She brought it to the hospital when she came to meet her new baby brother. Though he now has a collection of about 5 special buddies, Mr. Lion is still one of the favorites.

We are now expecting a little girl in September, and the buddy-tradition will continue. This time, I am making buddies. My children and I spend a while going through the patterns on the Lion Brand Free Crochet Patterns website, and chose 2 new buddies for their baby sister (actually, we had to wait a few weeks to find out if it was a boy or girl to see what color yarn to use).

Here is Buddy #1, a gift from my son to his new baby sister (though he would rather play with it himself right now):


Her name is YaYa...which is short for "YaYa Elmo Song" (for some reason when my son sings the Elmo song, it's "ya, ya, ya, ya...Elmo's Song/World" instead of "la, la"). Sammy named her by himself after I had suggested some other possible names. I love the YaYa name though, she's specially named by my baby's big brother.

YaYa is from the Lion Brand Georgina the Giraffe Pattern....clearly I went my own direction with the colors...I love BlaBla animal colors and went more that way.

Buddy #2 is from my almost 5-year-old daughter:


She is from the Lion Brand Pocket Kitten Pattern, though I made some tiny pattern changes as I went along on this one. Actually...quite a few changes, again more like the BlaBla animals...but thanks, Lion Brand for the idea.

She is named Zoey, which is what my daughter wants to name the baby...we're going another direction for the baby, so I suggested that the kitty might appreciate the name.


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Katherine (Kate) Grace, born September 27th, with her buddies! I think she likes them :-)